{"id":80748,"date":"2024-11-08T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T17:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=80748"},"modified":"2024-11-12T16:23:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:23:20","slug":"opening-the-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2024\/opening-the-outdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening the Outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-emphasis-on-text has-media has-box has-media-focus-center-top has-quaternary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2100\" height=\"2801\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1349-WHEELBUZZELL-002-e1730832604235.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Photo by Jimell Greene<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner has-opacity-60\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Alumni<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Opening the Outdoors<\/strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\"><em>Jeremy Buzzell of the National Park Service ensures that America\u2019s iconic locations are accessible for all<\/em><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">November 8, 2024<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-comments\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#comments\" class=\"wp-prepress-component-comment-counter label\">1<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/bu-author\/marc-chalufour\/\">Marc Chalufour<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Picture Yosemite National Park. Even if you\u2019ve never been, you can probably summon an image of the majestic valley defined by sheer cliffs and massive waterfalls. What about Yellowstone? Old Faithful\u2019s regular eruption comes immediately to mind. The orange hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, wildflowers of Glacier, and jagged peaks of the Grand Tetons\u2014these iconic sites are all managed by the National Park Service. Each sparks what Jeremy Buzzell calls an \u201cAha!\u201d moment\u2014and it\u2019s his job to make sure every national park visitor can share in those experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buzzell (\u201997), a branch chief for the National Park Service (NPS) in Washington, D.C., runs the Park Accessibility for Visitors and Employees (PAVE) program. NPS manages 431 national parks, monuments, seashores, and historical sites. Those properties comprise 85 million acres and attract more than 300 million visitors annually\u201410 to 20 percent of whom have a disability, NPS estimates. Each property has unique features\u2014and unique management challenges. \u201cThe Grand Canyon is not the same as the Statue of Liberty,\u201d Buzzell says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAVE offers the entire park system a common resource: a team that can provide technical assistance, consultation, and training to improve the accessibility of some of America\u2019s most popular destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the National Mall, NPS installed a tactile model at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial for visitors who are blind. At Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, in Michigan\u2019s Northern Lower Peninsula, they helped design an accessible kayak and canoe launch. At Kentucky\u2019s Mammoth Cave, where some tours descend hundreds of stairs and crawl through narrow passages, they created a half-mile trail for visitors with walkers or in wheelchairs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOftentimes it is what we are preserving itself that presents the accessibility barrier, so we have to use a lot of creativity,\u201d Buzzell says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Yosemite National Park, a signature experience is taking in a panoramic view of the valley. At the park\u2019s Glacier Point, the parking lot and trail to the overlook meet accessibility codes, \u201cbut if the experience of being at Yosemite is seeing that view, then we\u2019ve got to make sure that we can convey that to a person,\u201d Buzzell says. NPS staff identified this barrier for visitors who are blind and came up with a solution: three-dimensional bronze topographic models, oriented to each view, allow visitors to feel the contours of the valley from different points in the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-photoessay magazine-block-editorial-photoessay wp-block-photoessay js-block-editorial-photoessay\"><div class=\"photo-row-full-f\">\n<div class=\"photo-f\"><div class=\"wp-block-photoessay-media\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1500x1000.png\" alt=\"Two people one in a wheelchair and the other sitting on the ground overlooking a view in a national park\" class=\"wp-image-80754\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1500x1000.png 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-900x600.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-2048x1365.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1200x800.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-992x661.png 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1920x1280.png 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1000x667.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-1984x1323.png 1984w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-450x300.png 450w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1411371745-1-600x400.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption><p class=\"wp-block-photoessay-media-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Photo from Getty Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Buzzell\u2019s interest in accessibility began in high school, when he was cast in a school production of <em>Children of a Lesser God<\/em>. He studied sign language for his role as a teacher at a school for the deaf, which led to volunteer and job opportunities working with the Deaf community and then to BU Wheelock\u2019s special education program.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before NPS, Buzzell worked on special education and accessibility policies for the US Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and the Library of Congress. Joining NPS in 2014, he says, merged his professional life with a love of the outdoors. He had spent several years of his childhood in North Carolina\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains, frequently hiking and camping with friends, and he has vivid memories of a family road trip through Colorado\u2019s Rocky Mountains and Mesa Verde.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buzzell uses an expansive definition of \u201caccessible\u201d as he tries to make the shared experiences of the national parks available to all. There\u2019s the legal code of the Americans with Disabilities Act\u2014which he calls the \u201cbaseline\u201d for their work\u2014and then there\u2019s the question of how they can go beyond that. \u201cIf there\u2019s a bathroom at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we should make that bathroom accessible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me to decide what your limits are as a human.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture Yosemite National Park. Even if you\u2019ve never been, you can probably summon an image of the majestic valley defined by sheer cliffs and massive waterfalls. What about Yellowstone? Old Faithful\u2019s regular eruption comes immediately to mind. The orange hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, wildflowers of Glacier, and jagged peaks of the Grand Tetons\u2014these iconic sites [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20791,"featured_media":80750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[6613],"magazine-article-category":[6620],"magazine-topic":[6938],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[7093],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80748"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80886,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80748\/revisions\/80886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=80748"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=80748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}